"We are in a race between education and disaster." — H.G. Wells
-- The challenge faced by teachers

"Amusing ourselves to death"

"George Orwell, in his classic 1984, feared those who would ban books.
Aldous Huxley, in his classic Brave New World, feared there would be no
reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.
Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared
those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity
and egoism.

"Orwell feared that thetruth would be concealed
from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of
irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley
feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some
equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal
bumblepuppy.

"As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited,
the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to
oppose tyranny 'failed to take into account man's almost infinite
appetite for distractions.' In 1984, Huxley added, people are
controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled
by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will
ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us...

"Today our national character and aspiration,
once symbolized by the political radicalism of Boston, the melting-pot
of New York, and the industrial dynamism of Chicago, are symbolized by
Las Vegas, Nevada, a city dedicated to entertainment and proclaiming
the spirit of a culture in which all public discourse increasingly
takes the form of entertainment. Discourse in America, once
generally coherent, serious, and rational, has now, under the
governance of television, become dangerous nonsense, shriveled and
absurd.

"Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education, and commerce
have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely
without protest or even much popular notice. The result is that
we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death."

The antidote: writing skills

"Writing makes it possible and convenient
to subject thought to a continuous and concentrated scrutiny. Writing
freezes speech and in so doing gives birth to the grammarian, the
logician, the rhetorician, the historian, the scientist — all those who
must hold language before them so that they can see what it means,
where it errs, and where it is leading." — Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

Teachers and parents:
Shootings and other violence

in our communities are created by

violent TV programming and movies.

"The data is irrefutable."

Virtually all of the talk
about violence in our communities ignores the real culprits responsible
for the violence: the producers of violent TV programs, movies, and
video games that promote and glamorize murder and mayhem. They saturate
viewers, particularly the young, with around the clock violence, then
shed crocodile tears over the savage brutality their productions
perpetrate in our communities. Meanwhile glib politicians
sanctimoniously rail against guns and wring their hands over shootings
in reports aired by news media owned by the same corporations that make
money promoting violence -- and then make more money decrying it. Their
politician-accomplices make no reference to the culture of death
created by corporate media and contributing to the monstrously evil
acts now too common in our communities. Perhaps these
observations by former Lieutenant Colonel and West Point Psychology
Professor David Grossman can shed light on what is happening to
us -- and motivate us to do something about it:

"Data linking violence in the media to violence in society
is superior to that linking cancer and tobacco. The American
Psychological Association (APA), the American Medical Association
(AMA), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Surgeon General,
and the Attorney General have all made definitive statements about
this. When I presented a paper to the American Psychiatric
Association’s (APA) annual convention in May, 2000, the statement was
made even then that: 'The data is irrefutable. We have reached the point where we
need to treat those who try to deny it as we would treat Holocaust
deniers.'

"Classical conditioning is like Pavlov's dog in Psych 101.
Remember the ringing bell, the food, and the dog could not hear the
bell without salivating? In World War II, the Japanese would make some
of their young, unbloodied soldiers bayonet innocent prisoners to death.
Their friends would cheer them on. Afterwards, all these soldiers were
treated to the best meal they've had in months, sake, and to so-called
'comfort girls.' The result? They learned to associate violence with
pleasure. The media is doing it to our children. Kids watch vivid
images of human death and suffering and they learn to associate it
with: laughter, cheers, popcorn, soda, and their girlfriend's perfume.

"Today the media are providing our children with role models,
not only in the lawless sociopaths in movies and in TV shows, but in
the transformation of these schoolyard killers into media celebrities.
Thus we get the effect of copycat, cluster murders that work their way
across America like a virus spread by the six o'clock local news. No
matter what someone has done, if you put their picture on TV, you have
made them a celebrity and someone, somewhere, may emulate them. This
effect is magnified when the role model is a teenager, and the effect
on other teens can be profound.

"The American people need to be informed.
Every parent must be warned of the impact of violent visual media on
children, as we would warn them of some rampant carcinogen. Violence is
not a game, it is not fun, it is not something that we let children do
for entertainment. Violence kills. The media are
selling violence, and we do not have to buy it. An educated and informed society
can and must find its way home from the dark and lonely place to which
it has traveled."

Can anything be done
about the sociopathic corporate media creators of violence? Yes. Stay
tuned to for more. --
John Gile

Does your organization need an entertaining speaker
who can evoke “I never looked
at it that way before!” responses while conveying tips and tools to
strengthen critical thinking, expand creative thinking, enhance
coping skills, and increase problem-solving ability?

Communicators have more fun

"Well developed communication skills provide greater satisfaction and fulfillment in living:"•They give us clarity of thought and vision to see beyond what is to what can be."•They fill our lives with richness, and purpose. "•They give us power to achieve goals of every sort and to reach our full potential."•They help us deal with and overcome setbacks and failures and even
disasters that come into our lives and the lives of those we love."•They foster greater understanding of ourselves and others."•They enable individuals and groups of people work to together smoothly.
They help us know, accept, and be ourselves." -- John Gile, "Write For
Your Life"

For a good time
while you strengthen your communication skills and those of your
associates and/or students, contact JGC/United Publishing by email
(mailbox@jgcunited.com) or by phone (815.968.6601).